UCLA experts: DACA and the Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the Trump administration's effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which protects nearly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants brought the U.S. as children. Click the UCLA experts’ names below for a more detailed biography and contact information.

Motomura, the Susan Westerberg Prager Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, is an expert on immigration and citizenship law. He has written extensively on the subject, has served as co-counsel on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has testified before Congress. He has commented on President Trump's decision to end DACA.

Suárez-Orozco is the Wasserman Dean of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and an expert on immigration, the growing immigrant population in the U.S., globalization and education. He submitted a declaration (PDF) to the court on behalf of the University of California detailing the benefits of DACA and the negative implications of ending the program.

Eagly, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and faculty director of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, is an expert on immigration law. Her research explores the intersection of immigration law and criminal justice, and her recent scholarship has focused on the right to counsel in immigration proceedings.

Orfield is co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA and an expert on education policy, segregation and civil rights. His research focuses on the development and implementation of social policy, with a focus on how policies affect equal opportunity for success in American education. He has served as an expert witness in many high-profile legal cases dealing with access to education and civil rights law.

Gándara is a research professor of education at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and an expert on bilingual education and educational equity. Her research centers on access to education for low-income and ethnic minority students, language policy and the education of youth of Mexican origin. She is co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA.

Hinojosa-Ojeda is an associate professor in the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and an expert on immigration and immigrants in the United States. He has written and spoken widely on a variety of immigration-related subjects, including trade, investment, the labor market for Latinos in the U.S., and how ending DACA will harm the economy.

Hung, staff director at the UCLA Labor Center and a lecturer in UCLA's labor studies program, is a longtime social justice advocate who has worked on campaigns and initiatives concerned with workers’ rights, racial justice, education equity and immigrants’ rights. She served on the legal team supporting the leadership of the Dream Team LA, an activist group that successfully campaigned to win DACA.

Leisy J. Abrego is a professor in UCLA's César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies whose research focuses on Central American immigration, Latino families and the production of “illegality” through U.S. immigration laws. Her current scholarship examines the day-to-day lives of mixed-status families following the implementation of DACA.

Barreto is a professor who holds appointments in the department of political science and the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. He is an expert on Latino voting patterns and, more generally, how racial and ethnic minorites participate in politics in the United States.

Valenzuela is a professor in UCLA's César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and an expert on immigration issues and day laborers. His research has focused on the impact of immigration in urban neighborhoods and the experiences of minority groups in the labor market. He is a special adviser to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block on immigration policy.

Victor Narro, a project director with the UCLA Labor Center and a past lecturer in law and Chicana and Chicano studies, is an expert on the workplace rights of immigrant workers and immigration policy. Narro’s work has included studies of street vendors, agricultural workers and the garment industry, among other topics.

Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, is an expert on issues related to labor unions, labor relations and immigrant workers. A labor attorney, Wong has conducted extensive research on immigrant workers in Los Angeles and how immigration affects the labor market.

Lytle Hernández is a professor of history and an expert on the history and politics of immigration and emigration, particularly between the United States and Mexico. Her book “MIGRA!” was the first to tell the story of how and why the U.S. Border Patrol concentrates its resources on policing unsanctioned Mexican immigration despite the many possible targets and strategies of U.S. migration control.